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Fiona Foley

 

 

Selected links:       

"As an indigenous person, I feel that it is extremely important to expose these hitherto hidden aspects of Australian Aboriginal history. On the flip side, there is so much information now available in the public record that there is no excuse for Australians not to know."

Fiona Foley, Art Design Cafe Interview, 2014, link below.

Artcine.TV- Fiona Foley Part 1, 2011, 14.49 mins. The artist discusses her work. This is a three part series and all three films can be found on Youtube. 

Fiona Foley, Interviewed by Louise Martin-Chew, State Library of Queensland. 30 mins. In this interview created for educational purposes,  Fiona Foley talks to Louise Martin-Chew about her life as an artist and the influences on her practice including her sense of justice, desire to tell the hidden histories, her family memories and her love for Aboriginal culture. 

"Ongoing Work in Progress" The Australian, 2009, by Rosalie Higson

This article discusses the artist's practice and some of the historical and political references in her work.

 

Fiona Foley: Policy of truth , 2014 Interview with R.J.Preece. 

This is a detailed interview that covers works such as "Witnessing to Silence" 2004, "HHH" 2004 (pictured above), the installation "White Trash" 2006 (pictured above), and also "Dispersed" 2008. 

This rich education resource is for teachers of 7-12 Visual Arts and was created to support the 2010 exhibition- Fiona Foley: Forbidden. The exhibition reflected a partnership between the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney and The University of Queensland Art Museum, Brisbane. The kit provides a comprehensive introduction to the artists practice and uses the NSW syllabus concepts of the Frames and Conceptual Framework to structure investigations.

A one page education resource on Fiona Foley's 2008 sculpture Dispersed. Outlines the artists practice and artwork in brief and offers two questions for consideration. Suitable for 7-12 students.

Laced flour and tin boxes: The art of Fiona Foley is a chapter of a book produced for the exhibition World of Dreamings - Traditional and modern art of Australia an exhibition held at the State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg. This chapter is now on the National Gallery of Australia website.This is a detailed overview of the artist's background and career up to the year 2000. It is suitable for senior students. 

Fiona Foley artwork for Mackay Bluewater Trail by Louise Martin-Chew. This essay accpmanies the Blue Water Public Art Trail. Mackay Regional Council and Artspace Mackay proudly sponsored this significant public art development in MacKay QLD. There are six art installations by Fiona Foley beside Mackay’s Pioneer River. This essay outlines the comission process, consruction and the conceptual and material properties of each work. 

The Guerrilla Operative in Fiona Foley's Public Art by Louise Martin Chew.  

Chew writes beautifully about Foley's practice and knows it well. This is a three page essay on Foley's public art and discusses Witnessing to Silence 2004, amongst other works. Great resource for senior students. 

Fiona Foley- Retro-Active: 25 Year Survey is a catalogue by Andrew Baker Art Dealer. Although there is no essay, there are large images of works from throughout the artist's career and also a detailed CV.  

 Framing Questions:

  • Remembering and revealing the past is central to the practice of Fiona Foley. Ask students to discuss this notion with reference to two works by Foley that they have studied.

  • Fiona Foley has said she likes to think of her work as subversive rather than political.  Consider what is meant by ‘subversive’ and ask students to reflect on how this approach might have aided her creation of Witnessing to Silence, 2004?

  • Identify three postmodern ideas (use of  irony, quotation, juxtaposition and/or critique of traditional mainstream representations) that inform Fiona Foley's practice. Students should refer to artworks they have studied in their response.

  • The materials and objects Foley uses signal past events, histories, ideas and attitudes. Explain two of Foley's works and the way that she uses objects as signifiers. 

 

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